CFP: Melville and Feminism (3/10/07; MLA '07)

The Melville Society invites submissions for the following session at =20=

the MLA meeting in Chicago,December 2007:

What=92s a Feminist to Do

with Melville?

Feminist criticism contributes a stimulating, if still compact, =20scholarship in the field of Melville studies. The past three decades =20=

of feminist study have not only revisited questions of Melville and =20misogyny, but also renewed interest in his short fiction, poetry, and =20=

Pierre; opened up the significance of gendered figures in his texts; =20reconsidered his career through new historical models of authorship; =20and more. The publication this year of the first collection of =20essays to focus on women and Melville, Elizabeth Schultz=92s and =20Haskell Springer=92s Melville and Women, highlights some of the varied =20=

approaches that flourish under this critical rubric. The Melville =20Society=92s 2007 MLA panel provides the occasion to extend feminist =20inquiry.

This panel invites feminist critical engagement of Melville=92s =20writing, including such topics as:

politics with other men writers; Melville=92s place in feminist =20literary history; genealogy of feminist Melville studies; Melville =20and the history of feminism; feminist Melville study in a post-=20feminist world; new directions for feminist study of Melville; etc.